Over the years, JK Rowling’s whizz kid wizard has used his mystic might to magic his way into the hearts of book lovers the world over.

But if there’s one superfan more fervent than the rest, it has to be Steve Vander Ark.

In 2000, the 51 year-old librarian set up The Harry Potter Lexicon, a highly detailed encyclopaedia of the Potterverse.

It includes an exhaustive list of characters, places, creatures, spells and magical devices that exist on planet HP.

The Lexicon is so impressive that Rowling even used it herself, while writing her books.

But the Steve and JK mutual appreciation society cracked wide open recently – when Steve decided to publish the Lexicon in book form.

Rowling claimed a book version would crush her creativity and prevent her from writing her own planned encyclopedia.

A court case followed, but thankfully both sides have now come to an agreement

Steve made a few changes to the Lexicon and Rowling’s lawyers backed off.

Now the book is set to be published in the UK, with Steve,

who is American, visiting Birmingham later this year.

“I was really sad when I discovered that JK Rowling was unhappy about my book,” says Steve. “I’m such a major fan of Harry Potter; the books have given me a huge amount of personal pleasure over the years.

“So obviously I had no intention of making JK Rowling upset.

“I wouldn’t have agreed to have the Lexicon published in book form if that was to be the case. I’m just grateful the whole thing has now been resolved.

“I’ve never met Mrs Rowling, but I do know that at the end of the court case, a statement was put out saying that she was happy with the outcome. Which is a big relief to me.”

Steve became interested in Harry Potter while working as a librarian in Michigan. He read the first book in 1998, later discovering that fans were writing their own fiction set in the Potterverse, then publishing it on the internet.

“I’ve never had a huge urge to write fiction,” says Steve. “I’ve got a librarian’s mind-set. Which means I like to arrange things; put them in order. So I thought it would be quite helpful for all the people writing Potter stories to have a reference guide. So I worked on that.”

To properly research the books, Steve had to read each Harry Potter

novel many times over.

“I’ve probably read every single one about 20 to 40 times,’’ he said.

“Doing that became more time consuming as the series moved on because the books got a lot fatter!

“But that never worried me. When I’d see a new book for the first time, and it was huge, I’d get really excited.”

Of course, Rowling originally wrote her Harry Potter stories for youngsters, yet many of her most hardcore fans have body hair and mortgages.

Why does Steve think adults such as himself are attracted to magic amongst minors?

“You don’t have to be a child to love a good story,” he says. “And Rowling is the absolute master of the well-told tale.

“Plus, her fantasy world is so rich and well-thought out. She gives the reader a whole world to escape into.

“And escaping the real world is always an enticing proposition – especially when you’re an adult!”